Category: Press

With the recent enhancements to the combat API, players in Illyriad have been able to code their own tools to use in game. Some players, like the one I am interviewing below, have used the API to make their own tournaments. These tournies can be based upon anyone who wishes to share their API key with the tournament organiser, so the Illy crew thought it would be a good idea to ask someone how they do it in case others would like to try it as well.

Fundamentally, anyone who shares a specific API key with anyone else is sharing their specific API key-related data with that person for whatever purpose has been collectively envisaged (and can be revoked at any time). It’s a kind of “contract” between players to use the specific data provided (and there are many API keys for different purposes) for any purpose the data owner and the data recipient have pre-agreed.

This is a critical point to understand. The API key system is about freeing players (as individuals) to share their specifically-permitted dataset with other individuals for whatever purpose they collectively choose.

In other words:

If someone chose to only run a tournament with a single alliance, then this is their choice.

If they chose tomorrow to run a military tournament that was:

open to all players ingame, who

wished to share their combat API key, but

only if they were Elves, with

cities in Ragallon, whose

characters are at least 1 yr old and have more than 10 cities, but

started playing on a tuesday, and only

counting tournament military activity, if it

happens on a mountain square

in a jungle biome

only during night-time hours

during the full moon

where they kill NPC dogs rather than players

… then that’s their prerogative. That’d be the tournament they chose to set up. Pretty cool, huh?

The above is only a small example of the full set that could be tournamented; all the background data we provide works in harmony with the API key system.

And now, here’s a chat with one of our players, Ubluntu, who’s been test-driving the API system from the perspective of a player-run tournament:

Illyriad: OK, first up: introduce yourself. Who are you and how long have you played Illy?

Ubluntu: I am Ubluntu! I am a code monkey by trade and an Illyriad fanatic by choice. I have been playing Illyriad for a little under 3 years and in my time here many have come to know me as extra nerdy.

So what have you been doing lately? The word is that you host your own tournaments in game.

I sure do! I love to tinker with code and wrote some for Hunting Tournaments that run themselves. As far as I know, all other player-ran tournaments have required every player to send each relevant in-game-message to the organizer in some way. The organizer then had to copy and aggregate that information.

You have been using Illyriad’s free combat API, but what does that mean? What is an API and how does someone use it?

API stands for Application Program Interface. It is a way for different software to interact. In the case of Hunting Tournaments, your Combat Report API Key grants me direct access to your combat data in a machine-readable way that does not require any additional interaction from you (after you have generated and submitted your API Key).
So, rather than having to care about every in-game-message regarding anything that counts, “points” are automatically assigned while the host does nothing but have fun playing the game.

What do you enjoy the most about running your own tournies?

Initially it was the increased activity among alliance members, but now it may be the gold! 😉

What else could be done to make self-hosted (player-hosted) tourneys better or easier?

I feel like being able to send in game mail to more than one player at a time and improvements to the Alliance Forums(HTML and edit/delete posts/threads/forums) would make it easier to organize and inform players.

If an Illy player wanted to get started with running their own tourneys, what should they do to get started? What sort of advice would you give them?

To get started, just pick your favorite programming and language (all APIs are XML over HTTPS) and database then have a look at the API announcement posts:

My advice would be to pick tournament rules that are already enforced by the game itself and assign points according.

Thanks again to Ubluntu. He has been a great player for quite a long time, so we were eager to get him to explain how he has been hosting his own tournaments. If you have any specific questions, put them in the comments section. You can also email community@illyriad.co.uk with any questions and we’ll see if we can get an answer for you.

What is Coin? It’s your alliance ticker, so what does the alliance stand for?

* disclaimer* my answer is in no way to point fingers at other alliances and is not in any way stating other alliances aren’t doing similar things, but instead my answer is what I am proud to point out Coin does or plans to do.

War is easy to start but peace is hard to maintain. Coin is a peaceful alliance with the intent to help others as well as give players a place to call home in this game. At the most basic level, Coin is a trading alliance which supports T-O and eventually the Dsd as well. It is also essentially a home for tinkerers, thinkers, leaders, and players who want to be their unique selves as well as be a team player.

Hiei and I have been planning this alliance for quite some time now, we wish to give players an interactive personalized way to learn the game mechanics and keep it interesting as we go through team-building simulated situations in which players both new and old can partake in. This alliance is all about helping one another, helping out the game’s community but while keeping a creative edge to how we go about doing so, so it will remain fun.

What would you like to add to the game if you have magical dev powers and unlimited funding?

An alliance bank for items, not just gold. Factions hubs are alright for this to a degree but if we had the option to give ____ player(s) power to view what the alliance had, put items in, take them out, etc it was would be safer for the alliance as a whole instead of designating one player to act as an alliance hub or have it all scattered between a lot of players and crafters. Maybe even going a step further and let the alliance have their own faction hub where they can buy and sell to one another without other alliances seeing their inner-alliance prices would be great and fun to see which alliance could build a stronger inner-alliance economy.

Name a time in Illy when you did something you regretted.

I try to play the game in a way where I never really regret my actions, but instead accept the outcome be it good or bad since this is first and foremost a game that is meant to be fun. If I really had to choose a time I felt regret, it would be the times when I recently decided I wanted to change up all 10 cities, exodus each, rebuild them into better balanced cities… it’s sad to see my population go down as much as it has. I only have a few in their new locations as of yet, but at the same time it’s a game so what the heck… I can rebuild it back up to where I was or even surpass that and get an 11th on that day so will be fun.

Do you have an in-game nemesis? (I don’t mean someone who you actually dislike in RL. Maybe a competitor for trade or something? )

Hiei 100%! It’s a love-hate kinda thing in game and out of game. We choose to be partners in this game; meaning we stick together through thick and thin, work together no matter how much of polar opposites we really are and try to out do one another with the best/craziest/most creative ideas we can think of to try out in game. We keep it fun and help out our new alliance and alliance members with growth.

That doesn’t mean we work in harmony all the time, we bicker like an old couple, are rivals in being the best leaders we can be and will nitpick each other’s playstyle and choices when we have slow days or want to play around. I believe — as messed up as all this may sound — that type of relationship in game actually makes us stronger and more balanced as a team since my weaknesses are his strengths and his weaknesses are my strengths. It sounds cliche but it’s fun and it also allows me to nag him and be my mother-hen self and anyone who knows me knows that’s my specialty and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What advice would you give to a new player that is not normally something that newbies hear?

This in my opinion: it’s a sandbox game. That means you can go down any path you can think of in-game — that the game mechanics allow and isn’t “wrong” — even though some people will try to force you to believe it is. So the only way you can really know how to build your city is to make mistakes yourself and learn what you like, learn what you don’t, and customize it to match your unique amazing self!

Long story short, please don’t always blindly follow the social norms of the game thinking that’s the best way to be a part of the community, any good sandbox needs tinkers, thinkers and leaders so be creative, random, thinking outside the box to see if it will work. Just have fun with it!

How long do you think it took to become “skilled” at Illyriad?

Who said I was “skilled” in it now? Heck, I would love to think I am skilled at the game but I’m not sure there is a way to truly know if you are or aren’t since this, in my opinion, is a sandbox meaning there is no wrong way, just different styles. It took me a good few months to get down the game mechanics at a basic level then a year or so to get a way in which I felt was best for my personality.

As the game becomes more developed there are more things to take into account or learn about so I think I am always learning and growing as a player. I have “skills” in some categories of the game but not all of them… maybe one day though! Until then I will always happily accept other people giving me their opinion on good tips or strategies for the game.

2014 was a stellar year for Illyriad. Sure, we struggled with the usual indie team issues like figuring out how particular systems should work or when to release a patch but I’m proud to say that for such a small team, we did really well.

I wanted to put together a list of fantastic events that happened over the year. For more details about all of the updates, expansions, tweaks and fixes that happened over the year, you need to go to the announcements forum, here. Also, keep an eye on the news feed on our website if you ever want to see just how much we have done in a year.

So, to the list. Keep in mind that this is not in order of importance, and there is a lot more to choose from. I decided to go with the items that impacted the game the most. Add in your memories or suggestions for big events in the comments section below!

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Broken Lands launches: We finally opened the Broken Lands, a massive chunk of land due South of Elgea. Players are able to move there, explore, build and take over — if they dare. It’s a pretty dangerous area, marked with unusual land types and many different factions, so don’t take moving to the BL lightly!

Windows 8.1-optimized app is released: Although we had previously released a Windows 8 app, this newer, optimized version was needed. We’ve drawn in a lot of players because of this app, and it has even won awards for SlideDB’s app of the year!

New city graphics options: Players had been staring at the same 4 city types for quite a while, so we thought it’d be a good idea to let them change it up! We added in 34 different styles, each one with a different look for each stage of growth.

The Player Council forms: What better way to attack a project than with the player’s help? To start this experimental player-ran council, we decided to use lore as a topic. Five different players were picked to head five different specialities, from the timeline of the world of Illyriad to how the continents work together. We’ve already released some information and will continue to push out more at the beginning of the year.

SOV for lakes, lochs, tarns: Starving players could finally fish those lakes, lochs and tarns! What better way to give your towns a boost than to shoot them full of yummy essential oils?

Prestige scrolls: Want to sell your prestige for in-game gold? Need to give a buddy the gift of prestige? Can’t think of that perfect gift for your favorite enemy? Worry no more, prestige scrolls are here! They are a physical item that can be “cashed in” for prestige, made by using different materials and the amount of prestige you wish to give.

Player spotlight renewal: Our players are our greatest asset, which is why we decided to restart the player spotlight program. You can always nominate a player for the spotlight by sending an email to community@illyriad.co.uk and include their in-game name and why you think they should be spotlighted!

A big gold exploit closed: Ugh, no one likes exploits, and no one likes the mess they leave. We were hit by a pretty big one in 2014, but luckily we cleaned it up and moved on. Normally we wouldn’t want to remember stories like these but with such numbers, they teach a valuable lesson.

Illy wins some IndieDB awards: IndieDB and SlideDB both gave Illyriad several awards! We won for IndieDB’s Best Grand Strategy of 2014, the Editor’s Choice for Community and the Player’s Choice for Best Grand Strategy app. SlideDB gave us the Player’s Choice award for a Grand Strategy app and the Editor’s Choice for App of the Year!

Private chat: If there’s one thing players love, it’s privacy. They had been asking us for private chat for quite a long time so we finally delivered, and now we’re able to tell players “Take it to private!” if things get out of hand. It’s a wonderful feeling. Not to mention that, now, players can scheme and hatch nefarious plans without having to write an IGM.

It was an awesome year, but we have an even cooler year ahead of us! Thanks again to all of our passionate players who make this game as unique as it is.

Thanks to the fact that our game and community is so awesome, Illyriad has won a few awards! If you are not familiar with IndieDB, it’s a great site that features all sorts of news, updates and communications about the world of indie gaming. It’s been a good site for us and has given us a lot of attention. SlideDB is its sister site that concentrates on mobile gaming.Illyriad is proud to be a member of the DB community, and we’re very happy to say that we won a few awards in their latest yearly round-up!

Awards we won from SlideDB
2014 Winner – Players’ Choice – Grand Strategy App of the Year
2014 2nd Place – Players’ Choice – Overall App of the Year
2014 Winner – Editors’ Choice – Best Community

Indie strategy game, Illyriad, has been named a finalist in the Develop Awards for Online Innovation.

Illyriad has previously been applauded for its depth and richness, which mark it as distinct from the many browser city building and war games on the net, but this is the first major award for which the game has been considered.

Founder James Niesewand commented, “Working on Illyriad every day, the team are obviously aware of the levels on innovation in the game. The subtlety and range of strategies available to players are unique in browser strategy games, the quality of the lore has received a lot of praise, while invisibly, behind the scenes, there is a lot of cutting edge work on server-side technologies. But at heart we’re still a low-profile, Indie development team, so we don’t necessarily expect the world to notice what we’re doing. For this to be acknowledged by an award as prestigious as the Develop Awards, for our work to be considered alongside studios like IO or luminaries like Peter Molyneux, is wonderful. Everyone at Illyriad is honoured by the nomination.”

Illyriad’s development team continue to hone leading-edge, plug-in-free HTML5 innovations. At the front-end, our new world map illuminates both world continents in WebGL https://www.illyriad.co.uk/BrokenLands/Map, and at the back end our use of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform allows thousands of concurrent players to interact on a single shard with realtime game state communication via websockets. Our first major content expansion, The Broken Lands, is due later in 2013.

Illyriad, the acclaimed massively-multiplayer online strategy game, launched its 7th server-wide tournament today, entitled Champions Return. During this month-long live event, players will work together with their Alliances to combat the undead hordes and claim Ancient Champions for their armies. Portals have opened across the 37 regions of the map, out of which Ancient Champions will emerge, joining the player’s army who is occupying the site. Players will need to compete with each other to hold the squares, as well as co-ordinate with their Alliance to gain access to the Ancient Champion military units. Alliances with the most Ancient Champion units will win valuable in-game prizes including:

Hundreds of dollars worth of Prestige, in-game currency

An Alliance tournament statue to be placed permanently on the world map in game

Custom-designed, unique medals to be displayed on the player profiles of each member who acquires an Ancient Champion

For EACH REGION (most Champions collected throughout the month):1st Place: 100 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool2nd Place: 50 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool3rd Place: 25 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool

For the OVER ALL winners (most Champions collected in total during the month) also receive the following bonus:1st Place: 3000 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool and an Alliance Tournament Statue2nd Place: 1500 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool3rd Place: 750 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool

The tournament will come to a close at midnight on April 30. Full details and rules can be found at the Illyriad official forums.

“An epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community.” – Massively.com

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/press/Reviews

Game Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_9zEdFVaAc

Illyriad is a browser-based Massively Multiplayer strategy game, in which players take control of cities, engaging in city-building, quests, diplomacy, warfare and trade. Developed by London-based Illyriad Games Ltd., Illyriad went live in 2010 and was officially launched on May 16th 2011.

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/

For further information, please contact: press@illyriad.co.uk

Press assets are available at ftp.illyriad.co.uk , and further assets, quotes, interviews, etc., are available on request.

On the cusp of the game’s third anniversary, Illyriad, the acclaimed HTML5 strategy game, announces its first expansion today. This addition will double the size of the world map, giving players new and old more available land to expand their empire. The expansion will introduce new gameplay choices including interactive NPCfactions and a PVP-protected zone for players who wish to not partake in player verses player combat in their cities. Adding a portion of the Broken Lands map as a PVP-protected zone is an important step for the evolution of the game that allows players more power to truly choose how they want to interact with the world and others around them. With the release of the Broken Lands, NPC factions currently in game, as well as new factions added with the expansion, will become live and interactive. Players and Alliances will take part in story-driven quests that will determine their standings with factions, influencing how they affect the world through combat and trade.

Players will uncover the new continent, The Broken Lands, a war-torn land mass newly discovered to the south of the current continent Elgea. With entirely new factions, NPCs to fight and a unique quest and storyline, The Broken Lands will be a separate area of the game that will build up its own player-driven economy and power structures. After the apocalyptic destruction called The Sundering, The Broken Lands must be rebuilt by new and established players alike who will settle cities on this desolate land.

Key Features Include:

New Broken Lands continent doubles the land mass of the current game

Introduction of a portion of the map as a PVP-protected zone in which player cities cannot be attacked

New and interactive NPC factions

New quests including a 6-month story arc

Fully scroll-able and scale-able fullscreen 3D map created using HTML5 and WebGL

The use of the fullscreen WebGL browser technology enables players to experience the whole world; conveying its profound sense of scale while allowing a new fidelity in interactivity.

Illyriad is free-to-play and the Broken Lands expansion will be available to all players for free. The Broken Lands is set to be released in 2013.

About Illyriad:

“An epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community.” – Massively.com

“I could tell right away that this game was special.” – ThriftyGamer

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/press/Reviews

Illyriad is a browser-based Massively Multiplayer strategy game, in which players take control of cities, engaging in city-building, quests, diplomacy, warfare and trade. Developed by London-based Illyriad Games Ltd., Illyriad went live in 2010 and was officially launched on May 16th 2011.

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/

For further information, please contact: press@illyriad.co.uk

Press assets are available at ftp.illyriad.co.uk , and further assets, quotes, interviews, etc., are available on request.

Illyriad, the acclaimed massively multiplayer online strategy game, launched its 6th server-wide tournament today, entitled Dark Harvest. The tournament marks the celebration of the peaceful druidic Kildarran faction’s “Festival of the Dead” that seeks to honor the lost souls of the dead. In what could only be described as an industrious move, the magical Circle of Five faction have take the opportunity to construct beacons that will attract the wandering souls and harvest them, for unknown purposes.

During this month-long event, players will bind together with their Alliances to compete for control of 37 land squares throughout the expansive world map in order to capture and harvest the souls of the dead. Each week, the 10 “bloodiest” squares, those that have seen the most combat, will be granted a bonus that provides more souls to harvest at that location. Subsequently, the most hotly contested squares will also become the most valuable to hold as the tournament progresses. The Alliances that gather the most souls per region as well as overall will win valuable in-game prizes including:

Hundreds of dollars worth of Prestige, in-game currency

New military units called Skyclad Warriors

A one-of-a-kind tournament sword for use with troops and commanders

An Alliance tournament statue to be placed permanently on the world map in game

Custom-designed, unique medals to be displayed on the player profiles of each member of the winning Alliances

For EACH SQUARE (most souls gathered throughout the month):
1st Place: 40 Skyclad Warriors and a tournament sword to each participating player in that alliance.
2nd Place: 20 Skyclad Warriors to each participating player in that alliance.
3rd Place: 10 Skyclad Warriors to each participating player in that alliance.

For the OVER ALL winners (most souls gathered in total during the month):
1st Place: 6000 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool, an Alliance Tournament Statue, and a tournament victor’s Gold Medal for all participating members of the Alliance.
2nd Place: 4000 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool, and a tournament victor’s Silver Medal for all participating members of the Alliance.
3rd Place: 2000 Prestige to the Alliance Prestige pool, and a tournament victor’s Bronze Medal for all participating members of the Alliance.

The tournament will come to a close at midnight on October 31. Full details and rules can be found at the Illyriad official forums.

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About Illyriad:

“An epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community.” – Massively.com

“I could tell right away that this game was special.” – ThriftyGamer

“Illyriad has a great niche…. There is plenty to do and I would suggest that everyone with a few minutes goes and checks it out.” – Vagary.tv

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/press/Reviews

Illyriad is a browser-based Massively Multiplayer strategy game, in which players take control of cities, engaging in city-building, quests, diplomacy, warfare and trade. Developed by London-based Illyriad Games Ltd., Illyriad went live in 2010 and was officially launched on May 16th 2011.

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/

For further information, please contact: press@illyriad.co.uk

Press assets are available at ftp.illyriad.co.uk , and further assets, quotes, interviews, etc., are available on request.

This October, Illyriad’s CEO James Niesewand is set to present at the Game Developers Conference Online in Austin, Texas. He will be part of the day-long Game Dev Start-Up summit that takes a look at the challenges and process of game development within start-up companies. James will be sharing the lessons learned and experiences gained from the past three years since starting Illyriad Games Ltd. and growing the company and game in that time. Joining him will be a diverse panel of industry and legal experts. The summit takes place Tuesday, October 9, 2012. Visit the official website to learn more about the Game Dev Start-Up Summit at GDCO 2012.

About the Summit:

Starting up a new game development business is the first step to independence and increased creative freedom. But starting up any business is complicated. The new Game Dev Start-Up Summit presents a comprehensive step-by-step look at the issues, challenges, and realities of a new game dev as it forms and gets off the ground — starting from pre-formation considerations and continuing through the necessities all businesses face. The growth of social games, on-line, download, free to play, and other niches and genres have created unprecedented opportunity for new talent. This day long program will identify the challenges and arm you with knowledge that can, together with your creativity and passion, help your new venture succeed.

About GDC Online:

The Game Developers Conference® Online (GDC Online) is a conference for developers by developers. Now in its tenth edition, GDC Online returns to Austin in 2012 and continues to serve as the community meeting point for developers and business professionals looking to distill best practices, exchange ideas, and take full advantage of the opportunities of online, connected and cloud gaming. This community-oriented conference features lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions on topics taught by leading industry experts. In addition, the GDC Online Expo showcases game development tools, platforms and services. GDC Online will also host the third annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, honoring the accomplishments, creators, and operators of online video games. The GDC attracts over 3,350 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of connected games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC Online is produced by UBM TechWeb Game Network, a division of UBM TechWeb, LLC.

In the largest single release in the game’s history, the game economy of Illyriad, the acclaimed HTML5 massively multiplayer online strategy game, sees a dramatic expansion today, with new commodities, equipment, an expanded gathering system, crafting system and an expanded regional trade system.

The previous 17 resources which could be traded in Illyriad are joined by hundreds of new items, ranging from grapes and wine to rare minerals and magical ingredients. With many commodities available only in specific parts of the game world, and some extremely rare, this opens up the possibility for elaborate player trade and crafting strategies, extending to monopolies and cartels.

“This huge expansion in trade, and the whole crafting system that we are bringing in, opens up new choices for player specialisation. Specialist traders and specialist manufacturers will both have an important place in Illyriad going forward,” explained Illyriad’s founder, James Niesewand. “Illyriad has always been praised for its depth, and this release does add more depth. For example, military players previously had 8 basic troop types to choose from, but with the new equipment produced by crafting there will be thousands of possible troop load-outs, allowing players to customise their soldiers for different missions, terrains and even climates. So, for the military players, yes, there is more depth. But what this update really adds to Illyriad is breadth, allowing players to explore complex trading and manufacturing strategies.”

This update includes:

72 new weapons

53 new armour types

9 new mounts

13 new specialist buildings

More than 50 new special resource types

Dozens of items lootable from animals

187 new technologies to research, ranging from Wine Making, to Faction Markets, to Obsidian Blade

With such a dynamic change to the game, the full impact of the release could take several months to be felt by the players of Illyriad. All of the new buildings, equipment, researches and commodities in the release go live at the end of this week.

—

About Illyriad:

“An epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community.” – Massively.com

“I could tell right away that this game was special.” – ThriftyGamer

“Illyriad has a great niche…. There is plenty to do and I would suggest that everyone with a few minutes goes and checks it out.” – Vagary.tv

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/press/Reviews

Illyriad is a browser-based Massively Multiplayer strategy game, in which players take control of cities, engaging in city-building, quests, diplomacy, warfare and trade. Developed by London-based Illyriad Games Ltd., Illyriad went live in 2010 and was officially launched on May 16th 2011.

https://www.illyriad.co.uk/

For further information, please contact: press@illyriad.co.uk

Press assets are available at ftp.illyriad.co.uk , and further assets, quotes, interviews, etc., are available on request.